Death's Awakening

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Karmen

In her dream, the microwave was beeping at her. When she opened the door, the decaying head of her father stared up at her, his mouth open wide.

Karmen woke up in a sweat, bolting straight up on the couch in Noah's living room. It was only a dream. She breathed a sigh of relief and pulled her blanket tighter around her body.

Then the beeping was back. Only it wasn't coming from her dream this time. She was almost certain she was awake now. So what the hell was beeping in the middle of the night? She glanced around in the darkness, waiting for her eyes to adjust. Someone must have shut off all the lights down here before they went to bed. She reached over to turn on the lamp closest to her, but when she turned to knob, nothing happened.

Crap. Was the bulb burned out?

She had no idea where to find replacements and Noah was probably sleeping. Which is exactly what she wanted to be doing right now. But there it was again. The beeping sound.

Annoyed, Karmen pushed her blanket aside and felt her way along the wall toward the kitchen. She opened the microwave and checked the display, but it was dark. Okay, so it wasn't the microwave. Was the power out?

She groaned. Please, please, no. Don't let the power be out.

She walked to the edge of the room and flipped the switch up. Nothing happened.

You've got to be friggin' kidding me.

She let her head fall back and made a crying sound. Why did this have to be happening? Without power, there would be no air conditioning. No hair dryers. Half their food would go bad. This sucked. At least it was only a day until they evacuated.

The beep sounded again and Karmen turned around, trying to figure out where in the world it was coming from. If the power was out, what could possibly be still beeping? She waited for it to come again so she could guess just which direction it was coming from.

The basement?

Oh, God. Seriously?

Of all the places in the house, it just had to be the basement. The one place she had no idea how to find her way around in. But she needed to either find the source of the beeping or she was going to have to wake Noah up and get him down here to do it for her.

She felt her way along the edge of the island, her arms stretched out in front of her. Then, she moved her hand to the wall where she'd seen Noah fiddling with a keypad about a thousand times in the past week. As she got closer, she was positive that was where the sound was coming from.

When she found the door, she ran her hand along the edge until she found the knob. She tried it and was surprised it turned easily in her hand. With the power out, the locks must have been disabled, too.

It was just too bad she'd be completely blind down there and wouldn't be able to see whatever it was that had Noah so preoccupied these days.

She hesitated at the top of the stairs.

A gust of cool air floated past her as she opened the door. Noah must have been keeping the basement cooler than the rest of the house, because it was freaking cold down there. Karmen shivered, but she wasn't entirely sure it was just the cold air that was making her tremble.

Something didn't feel right.

Something didn't quite smell right, either.

A rotten stench blew past her and her heart jumped into her throat. Scuffling sounds at the bottom of the stairs kicked her pulse into overdrive. No, maybe scuffling wasn't the right word. It was more of a dragging.

A tiny squeak escaped from her and she froze. More dragging sounds. This time closer. Coming up the stairs. She almost peed her pants. For the first time, she let herself think the unthinkable. What if one of the rotters had gotten inside?

Another dragging sound, like someone pulling a heavy sack of potatoes up the stairs.

Karmen felt hot tears of terror burn a path down her cheeks. She was too scared to move. Her legs just wouldn't work. She could barely force a breath into her lungs.

This is not how I am supposed to die.

She tried to scream, but it came out as more of a wheeze.

Below her, something groaned. It sounded hungry. And it was closer than before. Karmen stumbled backward, knocking over one of the stools that sat in front of the island in the middle of the kitchen. She nearly fell over, but was able to scramble back to her feet and around to the other side of the kitchen. She tucked herself into the corner and slid down the wall, holding her legs tight against her chest, whimpering.

The zombie was moving again. His lame leg dragged across the tile floor. Her nostrils were filled now with the rotting stink of him.

I don't want to die.

She didn't want to die, and she definitely didn't want to become one of those things. A tingle of energy traveled up her arms and she shivered.

Please, don't hurt me. Please stop.

The thoughts poured out of her silently, and she imagined that she was communicating with the zombie. She wanted it to hear her. To listen to her. The electric feeling in her arms surged through her chest and all the way down to her toes. Maybe she was going insane, but she had this sudden feeling that it really could hear her. That it was listening to her thoughts.

You are not going to hurt me. Stop right there. Don't come any closer.

The dragging halted.

Karmen waited, unable to breathe or move. The rotting thing had stopped somewhere in the middle of the kitchen, close enough she could just make out its tall form in the darkness.

For a minute, she thought maybe she wasn't crazy. Maybe it really had heard her thoughts and was doing what she asked. But then it turned back toward her, its moaning louder as it reached out for her.

Karmen sucked in a terrified breath and screamed.

Eeek! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and are loving the book so far! Thanks so much for reading and voting!